by Heidi Bock on 4 October, 2012
Sometimes I feel a little spoilt working at the Museum with so much interesting information right at my fingertips. In my bid to find out more about the Royal Tour, I visited the Museum Library. This is an incredible resource, and after a quick search, six commemorative books from 1954 landed in front of me.
The inside cover of The Royal Tour of Australia and New Zealand in Pictures made me giggle. This artwork presents a stylised view of the arrival of the young Queen and her Duke in Australia. It depicts a schoolgirl with plaits, a stockman on horseback, a suited man with top hat and cane and, of course, a ram among the crowd.
Once past this illustration, there are striking pictures of the tour that truly show the spectacle and the excitement of the whole event. One standout image records little six-year-old Margaret Mary Moles’ gleeful face as she presented the Queen with a bouquet in Mt Gambier, SA. The caption reads ‘“Bend your knee, Dear,” was the gentle Queen’s whispered advice’. You cannot deny that the Queen is absolutely stunning.
The Museum Library will be opening to the public soon and I would encourage you to visit if you have the opportunity – you don’t know what treasures you might find.
To find out more about the Museum Library click here.
I love stuff like this! Out of all the pictures I’ve seen of the Queen, I don’t think she has ever worn the same outfit twice (God forbid) but why not? It’s 2012 – age of austerity and all that. Kate Middleton “recycles” her coats!
Hi James,
It’s funny you should mention that, as one of the ways to work out where the Queen is in the pictures is based on the outfit.
In one picture she may be standing in front of a landmark, so that would be easy to determine. But others not so clearly identifiable were made recognisable by the outfit.
The other thing I liked about the books were the sections of coloured photographs. The black and white ones don’t show how incredibly bold she is with choice of colour in her outfits.